WorkAbility helps youth with disabilities transition from school to employment

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

Elizabeth Weaverling, a poised, motivated and exceedingly polite young woman of 19, would be a dream employee for many business owners.

But because she has Down syndrome, a lot of employers might pass her by.

A state-funded work experience program called WorkAbility makes sure that doesn't happen. Administered by public school districts, WorkAbility provides special education students with job and life-skills training and finds them jobs.

Weaverling has worked at Marshalls and Wal-Mart, and for nearly two months has been a store assistant at Detour salon in Encinitas.

“Her special needs – it doesn't make her any different here,” said Shera Ross, a front desk manager at Detour. “She's just a part of our culture and what we do. Her attitude and her smile just make all the clients feel comfortable. It's been amazing. We love her.”

Weaverling said the feeling is mutual.

“I've never had anything like this,” she said at the store recently. “Not everyone is capable of working in a salon, so that is something. They are so, so gracious, so nice. It's like home to me.”

The WorkAbility program, established statewide in the 1980s, serves two populations of students: special education students still in public school and young adults ages 18 to 22. Federal law requires public school districts to provide free appropriate public education to disabled individuals through age 21.

In the San Dieguito Union High School District, about 1,000 individuals from Carlsbad to Carmel Valley are served by the WorkAbility program, said WorkAbility coordinator Debra Brody. They range from 12-year-old preteens to 22-year-old adults.

The district receives $242,000 a year to administer the program, Brody said.

Special education students still in school take a class that teaches them about daily budgeting, internships, job opportunities and other life skills. Students are given the opportunity to shadow an employee to learn about a career and to tour companies.

Young adults who have completed high school are served by WorkAbility's adult transition program. The San Dieguito and Carlsbad Unified school districts jointly serve about two dozen young adults at an education center in Carlsbad. San Dieguito also serves eight to 10 students at a second education center in Sorrento Valley.

Adults in the transition program generally face physical and mental challenges, including autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

Classroom instruction includes budgeting and banking skills, how to fill out a job application and handle an interview, how to dress for a job, how to take the bus and other skills.

Adults are generally, but not always, placed in jobs where they can work in groups of two or three, and a job coach – typically a special education teaching assistant – accompanies them to their work sites.

The WorkAbility program usually pays students' wages, although some employers share the cost and often end up hiring students.

“Special education students are not prepared generally to enter the work force, and I think this WorkAbility program really helps with that critical need,” Brody said.

Danny Arellano, an 18-year-old with autism, and Elizabeth Salerno, a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy, have worked together at a Pick Up Stix restaurant in Carlsbad for about two months. They greet customers, wash windows, clean tables, fill up soy sauce cups and complete other daily tasks. They wear uniforms and were recently given name tags.

The day after he received his name tag, Arellano showed up in class to show it to his teacher, Carolyn Wong – excitedly pointing to his chest and smiling broadly.

“He really is a hard worker, and he's willing to do any tasks I give him or at his job at Pick Up Stix,” Wong said. “It really makes him feel proud and pleased that they accept him as one of the employees there.”

Gerry Quijas, manager of the Pick Up Stix where Arellano and Salerno work, said he recognizes the importance of making his employees feel welcome and valued.

“Little things like (a name tag), for us it's part of a uniform but for them it's a great big thing because it gives them a sense of identity,” Quijas said. “It does help them a great deal with their self-esteem.”

Quijas said he participated in a similar program for disabled adults when he worked in the restaurant business in Colorado Springs, Colo., and it was as successful there as it is here.

“These students take a great deal of pressure off of us,” Quijas said. “From my standpoint, it's a great program and I wish that more companies would actually work with programs like this.”

Companies that have participated in the Workability program in North County include Chuao Chocolatier, T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, La Costa Resort and Spa, and West Inn & Suites.

Carl Holmes, director of housekeeping at West Inn & Suites, said he plans to hire one of his WorkAbility helpers next year.

“The students are amazing,” Holmes said. “They have such a great attitude ... and the only limitation is that they come in from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and I'd love to have them more.”

Debbie Batchie, an employment manager at La Costa Resort and Spa, echoed Holmes' enthusiasm.

“These students are so excited to come to work every day and be useful, and that inspires the rest of the staff,” Batchie said.

Julie Weaverling, Elizabeth Weaverling's mother, said her daughter is thriving at Detour.

“Of course a lot of people would like to put a label on her and decide ahead of time what she's capable of, and we've never done that,” Julie Weaverling said.

“She's very aware of her disability, and she's very aware of how people treat her because of it. ... For her to be in a creative environment with people who are really interested in her being there is wonderful.”